Woman Confesses Snapchat Filters And Makeup Made Her Forget What Her ‘Real Face’ Looked Like

I’ve decided that 2018 is the year I decide to wear less makeup and cut down on Snapchat filters.

By that I don’t mean that instead of seven layers of foundation I’ll wear five.

I mean there are some days I will just not wear any makeup at all and I will resist the urge to filter every picture and video on Snapchat.

It’s all because one day I had no makeup on and I was playing with the filters on Snapchat and in between two filters I scared myself. I saw my real face.

I got so carried away with how different they made me look that for a split second I forgot what I look like.

I literally jumped back when I saw my bare makeup and filter-free face.

I know this sounds incredibly stupid. But honestly it’s the truth and I realise I’m not alone in this after discussing with a couple of friends.

Snapchat filters have become the modern-age version of makeup.

Knowingly or unknowingly, myself and many other women have been hiding behind these cute filters to the point where some of us now prefer our filtered face over our real face.

Some of my favourite filters

I didn’t really start using make up until I was introduced by a friend to MAC Cosmetics in university, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

So when these filters came out, subconsciously I guess, it was just yet another ‘high’ to change my face even more.

It may seem that I don’t like my face and you’d be forgiven for thinking that but you’d be mistaken. I like my face a lot.

However, the filters, like makeup, became enhancements that made me feel more beautiful.

At one point in my mid 20s I went through that phase of never wanting to leave the house without makeup.

I had a boyfriend at the time who liked me completely natural-looking who insisted when we met I didn’t wear makeup.

Sounds domineering and I guess I was naive but I followed his orders.

But looking back I’m really grateful because by doing that he made me feel like I don’t need makeup to feel more beautiful and that he liked me as I am.

In fact he once told me that makeup dampens my beauty and doesn’t enhance it.

So for the first time in years I went out and about without it. Since I did many others have agreed.

But I still struggled to upload a Snapchat video or picture without a filter. It felt like I was back to square one.

But that chance encounter with my real face in between filters reminded me that I need to love my face again.

So I’ve set myself a challenge for the next 12 months – I will go out even more without makeup, I’ll upload some photos of me with no makeup and no filter, I might even go to church (a place where you put on your Sunday best) one day with no makeup and take photos with no filter.